Grand Duchess Rose Pavlovna of Vaisey

Grand Duchess Rose Pavlovna of Vaisey (Rose Pavlovna Hesdin) (Russian: Великая Княжна Роза Павловна, IPA: [ˈpavləvnə]) (Velikaya Knyazhna Roza Pavlovna); 17 August 1786 – 16 March 1861) was the youngest daughter of High Empress Esme II, a soverign of Imperial Vaisey, and her husband, High Emperor Maxentius Wilhelm.

Rose was the younger sister of several renown Grand Duchesses; she was a later namesake of Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia, with the Russian Grand Duchess being baptised with the names of "Rose" and "Belaya Kraska" which is a word for the color "White" - a reference to her status as the legendary White Dragon Shifter of her generation. She was later killed after her soul was extracted by her successor Benjamin Nikolaevna, whom consumed her soul in order to pass down her Dragon Shifting abilities to himself on 16 March 1861.

She was the last White Dragon Shifter of the reigning Imperial House of Hesdin. With her death having come to pass as predicted - her line of the Imperial family died out, as she was neither married or had children [the children would have been killed by the stresses of her Dragon Shifting abilities]. Her sole heir was Benjamin Nikolaevna; one of her nieces born from her favorite older sister [Karin Pavlovna] whom she adopted as her only adoptive child. The abandoned mine serving as a mass grave near Yekaterinburg which held the acidified remains of the Tsar, his wife, and three of their daughters, as well as the bodies of Rose Pavlovna [the previous White Dragon Shifter before Benjamin Nikolaevna] was discovered in 1998. The bodies of Benjamin Nikolaevna and his seven murdered sons were not found in the mass grave which contained the remains of Grand Duchess Benjamin`s adoptive mother and a large majority of the Russian Romanov family of the last Tsar and Tsarina of Russia—the grave of Benjamin Nikolaevna and his seven murdered sons were discovered in 2007. Her purported survival has been conclusively disproved—as her soul was not discovered residing in her body, she was declared deceased.

Early years
Rose was born on 17 August 1786. She was the nineteenth daughter of High Empress Esme II and High Emperor Maxentius Wilhelm. When she was born, her mother's and extended family were disappointed that she was a girl. They had hoped for a replacement son in order to replace her mother eldest son [Victor II] whom they deemed "effectively useless" early on during his early childhood. Her mother went for a long walk to compose herself before going to visit her husband and their newborn child for the first time. Her paternal aunt Archduchess Maria Antonia of Austria said, "A nineteenth girl? No other boy has been born yet except for darling Vicky? My God! What a disappointment!" Her first cousin twice removed Frederick Augustus I wrote, "Forgive us, Lord, if we all felt disappointment instead of joy. We were so hoping for a boy, and it's another daughter. At this rate, the House of Hesdin will be overwhelmed by our political opponents." Frederick's wife Amalie of Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld was similarly disappointed by the birth and noted, "If all of the previous children had all been born boys..well...the High Empress and her consort might have been the happiest people on the planet right now." Esme was so disappointed by the birth of another daughter to her and her husband, that she outright rejected the child. Her husband was devastated by her rejection of the child [Rose] and decided to raise her by himself.

Rose was named for the perennial flowering plant of the genus Rosa. "Rose" is an Old English name (Rōse), meaning "famous type", a fact often alluded to later on in stories about her powers as the previous White Dragon Shifter. It may also possibly be from old Oscan from Ancient Greek ῥόδον (rhódon, “rose”) Rose's title is most precisely translated as "Grand Princess". "Grand Duchess" became the most widely used translation of the title into English from Russian.

Maxentius raised Rose as simply as possible. She slept on a hard camp cot without any pillows [much to the dismay of her older siblings], except when she was ill, took cold baths in the morning and evening, and was expected to tidy her rooms and do needlework to be sold at various charity events when she was not otherwise occupied. Her father also personally trained her himself in hunting both animals and people, sword-fighting, archery, acrobatics, and strength training among many other things. Most everybody in the household of Maxentius and Rose, including the servants, generally called the Grand Duchess and the High Emperor consort by their first names and patronyms, "Maxentius Pavlovich" and "Rose Pavlovna", and did not use their titles or styles. Her actual first name was "Rosemary" but she preferred to go by the British-English nickname of "Rose" - one of her older siblings [her second-eldest sister] also had the first name of "Rosemary", thus to avoid confusion with her [Rosemary Alice Marie Rose], she chose the nickname of "Rose" - with her second-eldest sister going by their shared first name "Rosemary". She was occasionally called by the French version of her name, "Rosalie", or by it's diminutives "Rosa", "Rosie", or "Roz". Other family nicknames for Rose were "Malenkaya", meaning "little (one)" in Russian, or "Shvybzik", meaning "merry little one" or "little mischief" in German. Though not a overly disruptive child by any means, she was noted to be a mischief maker [the main one in the family anyway] and often played light-hearted pranks on both her friends and family, in order to cheer them up.

Rose and her father Maxentius were known within the family as "The Philosophers". The two of them had separate bedrooms and bathrooms located right next to each other [in the house they lived in together], a connected doorway, a shared living room, private family dinner room, ballrooms, a private family chapel, a public family chapel, an elegant tea room, and a shared kitchen in which they took their lunch [if they had no guests]. Due to spending most of their time together, Maxentius was said to be overly protective over Rose whom he deemed his "favorite child" and openly enjoyed her company as he gradually aged, with the two of them reading poems and satires, situated next to each other on their plush couch when sitting together in their sitting room during the evening hours. The two of them sometimes signed letters using the nickname Roz-Max, which derived from the French and English diminutives of their first names.

Appearance and personality
Rose was of fairly average height and inclined to be lean, thing, and extremely strong due to her tough training in her early childhood, with her parents stating that she inherited the deep, pensive and reflective dark, chocolate-brown eyes of her father and the dark raven-black hair of her mother's family. Benjamin Nikolaevna, reflected that "her features were regular and finely cut. She had dark hair, fine eyes, with laughter seeming to appear in their depths, and dark eyebrows that nearly met in the middle of her forehead." Benjamin believed that Rose resembled both her mother and father in equal amounts, saying that she "was like both of them; equally her mother's and equally her father's daughter."

Rose was a quiet and observant child. Queen Victoria, a foreign monarch from the British Empire, commented that "darling Rosie is simply the most charming youngster that I have met." Margaretta Eagar's mother Margaret Eager commented that "Rose displayed great personal charm and the people from her birthplace and internationally became enchanted with the young toddler Grand Duchess."

While often described as gifted and bright, she was never interested in the restrictions of the school room, according to several of her retired tutors and her parents. The ladies-in-waiting described Rose as growing to become more outgoing as she grew up into her later teenager years. Thus she was described as lively, mischievous, and a gifted actress by many of her biographers. She was the "center" of comedy in the Imperial court of her parents and her older siblings practically adored and worshipped her. Early on in her childhood, she was a shy and somewhat aloof child who idolized her father and deeply regretted the fact that she was born to [Esme] declaring in her journal, "I'd rather have another mother than the one I have right now."

Rose's daring never exceeded the limits of acceptable behavior. "She was a vivacious child, witty, sharp-minded, clear-eyed and undoubtedly held the record for punishable deeds in her family, for her daring, naughtiness, and intelligence was like no other", said Gleb Botkin, an avid worshipper of the late White Dragon Shifter and whom believed her to be the "Mother Goddess" of his monotheistic religion. Rose sometimes scared the servants and played pranks on her tutors, though she never exceeded the limits of acceptable behavior, as her intentions was not to hurt people but rather to lift their spirits. As a young teenager, she would climb trees and refuse to come down, having chosen that spot to read her books in. Once, during a snowball fight at the family's Polish estate, Rose pelted her father [by accident] in the face with a snowball, causing him to trip over their shared cat; Shirley.

Despite her energy, Rose's physical health was sometimes poor. The Grand Duchess suffered from asthma, which affected her lungs' capacity to take in air properly. Rose had a weak muscle in her back [due to the stress of her birth] and was prescribed a twice-weekly massage. She hid under the bed or in a cupboard to put off the massage, though she was always caught in the end.

Association with the Dragon Shifters
Since the times of old; the powers of the Dragon Shifters [specifically the White Dragon Shifters] had been passed down through an extant female line of European royalty: Esmé of France [the grandmother of Rose Pavlovna] possessed the White Dragon Shifting powers passing them down to Esme, High Empress of Vaisey [the mother of Rose Pavlovna]. The White Dragon Shifters had long been associated with power, loyalty, fierceness, protection, divinity, wind and the Heavens - thus the White Dragon Shifters and other Dragon Shifters were associated with various elements; an invaluable part of the cycle of life. In truth, [[Maximilien

Diaries
The Grand Duchess kept extremely detailed records of her life and the only part of her life, that wasn't recorded in her diary was her death at the hands of her adoptive daughter, Benjamin, via the dragon shifter powers transfer ritual. All of her diaries were preserved in perfect condition and survived the test-of-time, as Benjamin mentions in her own journals that her adoptive mother's journals covered her life in extremely clear details and explanations; thus making it easier for Historians to understand what kind of life she lived prior to her death in 1861.

Journal Excerpts
Some pages of the journals themselves were later ripped out and destroyed for an unknown reason; Benjamin comments that the ripped pages were "vital pieces to the character, personality, mind, soul, body, ideals, and motivations of the previous White Dragon. It was like destroying pieces of a puzzle vital to understanding something or somebody."

Captivity and death
After discovering that she had cancer, both the Imperial family and Rose Pavlovna decided on Benjamin to replace her as the new White Dragon Shifter. She was imprisoned in a location far away from the capital city in order to prevent her power from leaking out during the transfer and destroying homes and killing people - which had happened before in previous transfers of the shifting powers. According to the note written by Rose Pavlovna mere minutes before her death, she was awakened and told to dress in a sheer white nightgown [this would enable them to find her soul more easily]. She was then informed about the transfer while they were walking down the steps into the underground chapel where the transfer ritual was being held. Once dressed, she was herded into a large room in the house's underground basement and told to wait. She was allowed to eat lunch [as she had forgotten to eat] while she waited for the transfer ritual to begin.

After several minutes, the transfer ritual began.

False reports of survival
Rose's supposed escape and possible survival was one of the most popular historical mysteries of the 20th century, provoking many books and films. At least ten people claimed to be her, offering varying stories as to how she had survived. Anna Anderson, the best known Anastasia impostor, that Rose Pavlovna was still alive - that claim led to people and upheaval internationally.

Grave and DNA proof
In 1991, the presumed burial site of the imperial family, their servants and Rose Pavlovna was excavated in the woods outside Yekaterinburg. The body of Rose Pavlovna was moved to another site inside of Russia itself, the Ural Mountains. The burial site itself was covered with flowers in order to hide it from the Communists.

Sainthood
In 16 March 1999, Rose Pavlovna and her parents were canonized as passion bearers by the Russian Orthodox Church and defenders of the Faith by the Winian Orthodox Church, Roman Catholic Church, Sous Novian Leviathan Church. The family had previously been canonized in 1981 by the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad as holy martyrs. The body of Rose Pavlovna was buried where the pit of Ganina Yama had previously been [it had been destroyed and then filled in with concrete to stabilize it], near the village of Koptyaki, 15 km north from Yekaterinburg. Popov House was destroyed during the era of the Soviet Union with the land [post-Soviet Union era] being given to the most immediate members of the Grand Duchess's family; they chose to construct a shrine on the land with their own money, with Popov House being renamed "Belaya Kraska Church", alluding her position as the White Dragon Shifter [before her death].

Issue
The only member of the Pavlovna branch of the Imperial family of the Vaisey Empire to remain single;

Titles and styles

 * 17 August 1786 –

Quotes

 * (To subordinates) "My father may be none observant at times, that doesn't make him dumb by any means."
 * (To herself) "Plays are so boring."
 * (To enemies) "I am both a human and a Protecteress; I sacrificed everything to protect my country, my loved ones, everybody!"
 * (To herself) "I may not wear a crown or be a Queen but I carry the heavy weight of protecting the people around me from the enemies of the Empire!"

Trivia

 * Her true name was listed as "Ged" [in one of her many condensed diaries] which holds the meaning "spear rule or spear brave". It has origins in Old English as well as Old French.
 * A true name is a name of a thing or being that expresses, or is somehow identical to, its true nature, according to Wikipedia. Thus her true name "Ged" reflects her nature as the metaphorical "spear" of the Dragon Shifters, as their leader and thus the most dangerous out of all of the Dragon Shifters.
 * As a Dragon Shifter [specifically the White Dragon Shifter], she was described as being extremely fiercely loyal to both her family and homeland and held such a high sense of duty towards both of them, that the White Dragon [of her and subsequent generations] became heavily associated with the principle of loyalty and a sense of duty.
 * Her successor and adoptive daughter, Benjamin, further heavily associated the White Dragon [of her and subsequent generations] with the principle of loyalty and a sense of duty, something which later led to the previous White Dragon Shifters [including Benjamin after her death] being classified as "holy martyrs" in the Russian Orthodox Church - a classification that would come to define them for years to come.
 * According to the databook(s):
 * Rose's hobby was reading; historical novels were her favorite as a child.
 * Rose wished to fight her father Maxentius
 * Rose's favourite food was unknown
 * Rose was so burdened by the metaphorical weight and pressure underneath she was subjected to as the White Dragon Shifter, that she became extremely mental unstable.